Still from an unknown location, Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska, is sending messages via social media. He boasts about meetings in Israel, sends support to citizens in flooded areas, but does not reveal his further political plans. Many are already speculating that Dodik is already in Russia, where he hopes to meet with President Putin.
While, despite the arrest warrant, Milorad Dodik is lobbying and conducting diplomatic activities around the world, his legal and political status has been discussed both inside and outside BiH. After the statement of the UN Security Council, the Chairperson of the Presidency, Željka Cvijanović, rejoiced because there was not a word about, as she says, the illegal High Representative, who is the cause of all the problems, nor was there any successful lobbying by the BiH Ambassador to the UN, Zlatko Lagumdžija. However, the Ambassador did not remain in her stead.
“The Security Council Statement did not include her demands that the discussion be about the OHR, and not about Dodik’s secessionism – demands that the Presidency Chair sent to the members of the Security Council, and that were promoted on her behalf by the Russian ambassador. This time too, she missed the topic, the place, the time, and me,” said Zlatko Lagumdžija.
While new visits by European officials, announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, are awaited, a message is also coming after the meeting of the Ministers for Europe of Great Britain and France. After the meeting on the situation in BiH, the ministers said that they condemn the attacks on the constitutional order. France remains committed to the unity of the country and its European future.
That there is no more dialogue with Dodik, say many, and that this politician does not change his temper, is best known by those who have followed him from the earliest days of his rule. One of them is Avaz journalist Almasa Hadžić. Since January 1998, when he was elected Prime Minister, he has not changed his way of acting.
“The perception of him could have been much better than it is now, in fact, now there is no way around it, but I tell you, back then he showed his arrogance, it’s just that we were naive or stupid, I don’t know what, so we didn’t notice. This is Dodik who wanted to be powerful at all costs, and we saw that then in his attitude towards those people who were MPs, so you can’t do that, you can’t frown at people, insult them, regardless of whether you are political opponents, but that’s what he was, then as now,” says Almasa Hadžić, a long-time Avaz journalist.
Along with political isolation, it is perhaps even more important to bring Dodik to justice. Therefore, cheap political points, in the current situation, are not welcome, believes SBB leader Fahrudin Radončić in a statement to Face TV.
“The Troika cannot boast that it has cornered Dodik, that it has destroyed him and that it has almost caught up with him. I understand that people want cheap party points, but this kind of rhetoric suits Mr. Dodik’s lawyer because he says, and the statements of Mijatović, Helez, to name a few, show that this is a political process, and it is not a political process,” emphasizes Fahrudin Radončić, president of SBB.
Even in the story about the possible issuance of an international arrest warrant, Dodik, Stevandić, and those who support them, are referring to political persecution, and in this way they plan to challenge the Interpol arrest warrant, if it is issued. If Interpol responds positively to the request of the Court of BiH, then it is clear that there are countries where the fugitives would be welcome.
“Of course, if these arguments were accepted and an arrest warrant were issued in some way, then again that state would assess for itself whether to detain, detain, or extradite the person later to the state in question that is seeking such a person, which does not automatically mean that the state is obliged to do so,” adds Armin Kržalić, a professor at the Faculty of Criminal Law.
The Bosnian Interpol office claims that they are unable to provide any information from international arrest warrant cases, as they are intended exclusively for official, police, and judicial use. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina should inform the public about Interpol’s decision. The request was sent a few days ago, N1 writes.
